5 Unpopular Opinions About Dragon Ball

[By the way, the poll on the left is finally closed. According to it I have...four fans total, and two people who visit periodically. Clearly I'm on my way to internet celebrity] 

No "Z" Necessary

If you were to say that Dragon Ball and/or Dragon ball Z is the best manga/anime of all time it’d be hard to argue with you. It’s been almost thirty years since its debut and it still has a ton of fans all over the world and continues to do pretty darn well as far as merchandise goes, seeing as video games featuring Goku and his friends are still pretty good sellers. My friend Iron Eagle, who is a teacher, tells me that kids are still fully aware of the franchise. When you think about it too closely it’s pretty crazy. But just because it’s popular and long lived doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Many of you know damn well that it’s hard for me to say I’m not a fan of franchise without looking like a big liar. The truth is I love the manga; it’s a fun comic that doesn’t require a whole lot of thinking on my part to thoroughly enjoy it. I have always been pretty annoyed with the anime though. However my biggest problems with the franchise aren’t limited to its cartoon. Much like with Star Wars about a year ago I decided to express some of my issues with the DB franchise.

Now I need to remind you all that these are just my opinions. I’m just saying how I’ve interpreted things and you can very easily disagree. Feel free to do so in the comment section, or better yet come up with your own lists.

Click below for unbelievably nerdy rambling.

Review: Dragonball Evolution

Okay, so full disclosure: I am a Dragon Ball fan. Mostly.  I actually hate the anime for all sorts of reasons but I do very much so enjoy the manga.  Although I find Akira Toriyama to be an extraordinarily poor character writer, especially in regards to women, I do think he’s crafted an incredibly interesting world.  Obviously with this in mind I’m likely biased against Dragonball Evolution, the American live-action adaptation of the comic.  It can’t be helped, but I’ll try to keep things as objective as possible.

Screw this movie!

Okay, okay, I realize that’s not professional.  Released in 2009 and directed by James Wong this film may well be the first of several dubious Hollywood live action remakes of popular anime and manga (Along with the Speed Racer movie).  Akira is apparently in preproduction and now I hear rumblings of a Star Blazers film (Though Japan just recently released a live action film based on Space Battleship Yamoto, the original series Star Blazers is dubbed from).  Apparently 20^th Century Fox wanted to snag writer/director/actor/comedian Stephen Chow to helm this film and I suspect that, judging from Chow’s comedic timing and the fact he’s (Clearly) a fan of the source material, that movie would have been at least a little bit entertaining.  Alas he turned it down instead coming onboard as a producer, which makes him at least an accessory to the crime.  And yes, a crime was indeed committed here: a crime against intelligence and a crime against cinema. Ignoring what alterations to the story it may have made this movie is horrifyingly bad.  I mean beyond “So Bad it’s Good” and into “Holy Christ, what in God’s name am I watching?”  If you ever wanted to know exactly what makes a terrible movie then look no further.

Full review after the jump.